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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28989771">Oceanus</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayaMarkova/pseuds/MayaMarkova'>MayaMarkova</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Prophecies of Prometheus [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Ancient Greek Religion &amp; Lore</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Gen, Practically all deities of Greek mythology</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 09:56:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>13,216</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28989771</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayaMarkova/pseuds/MayaMarkova</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Prometheus visits his father in-law Oceanus, and they discuss the history and the current state of their community.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Prometheus/Pronoia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Prophecies of Prometheus [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1995868</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The home of Oceanus was a giant underwater cave, where air was supplied by a sophisticated system of pipes and only the best rooms had a view. The dining room was large, with round windows. Behind them, algae and sea lilies oscillated with the water currents and curious fish peeped. The view of the magnificent marine world was a just reward after the long descent, which had to be done slowly and with frequent stops to equilibrate the pressure. Even the sea folk disliked the procedure, and visitors from the land hated it wholeheartedly. Reaching the needed level always brought them tremendous relief, somewhat spoiled by the thought of the return journey. For Prometheus, it was pleasant to think that a long distance and a thick layer of water separated him from Olympus. Of course, the feeling of safety was illusory. Oceanus, who was his host, uncle and father in-law, would never engage in any opposition. And he was subordinate to Zeus’ brother Poseidon anyway.</p><p>	Prometheus and Pronoia were not just at a regular visit to her parents. He also had to give his in-laws a test result for their youngest daughter Leuce. However, one does not start such an unpleasant task right away. They would first have lunch with Oceanus, his wife Tethys and many Oceanids – Pronoia’s sisters. None of her brothers attended, however. Adult males of the house of Oceanus could not coexist in one home, no matter how large. They became river gods instead, and in each river, only one could settle. Of the Oceanids, Styx alone had become a river goddess. She chose and gave her name to the cold toxic underground river which none of her brothers had wanted, and which guarded the oaths of gods. Most other Oceanids had settled by streams and sources, but some of the youngest still lived in their father’s home.</p><p>	Tidings from Mecone had apparently arrived before the guests, because the maidens stared at Prometheus and wanted to hear a first-hand report. Oceanus and Tethys generally tried to keep their daughters safe and innocent and therefore did not talk about politics in front of them. However, the girls insisted so much that an exception seemed inevitable. So Oceanus allowed his son in-law to tell briefly the story, giving him a sign to be careful.</p><p>	‘Nothing special to tell,’ Prometheus started. ‘Zeus wanted the humans to give the Olympians a part of every animal they kill. Sacrifice, as he called it. He ordered me to show which part was to be given away and which to be kept by the humans. I slaughtered an ox, cut it and divided the pieces into two parts: a durable and transportable one for the Olympians and a perishable one for the humans. Zeus initially didn’t quite appreciate the division, so I offered him to choose whichever portion he wanted. He then chose the one I had meant for the Olympians, and that was it.’</p><p>	‘So you didn’t try to deceive Zeus?’ asked one of the Oceanids named Acaste, an already grown-up maiden with a clever face.</p><p>	‘Who could deceive the Thunderer, or even consider such a thing?’ diplomatically answered Prometheus. ‘Indeed, some then talked ill of me to him. You know, whatever work you do, there will always be someone who has not done it but accuses you after the fact and claims that you have done it badly. However, Zeus eventually figured out the truth. Otherwise, would I be here now, free?’</p><p>	The Oceanids looked a little disappointed. The conversation shifted to safer subjects and so the lunch ended peacefully.</p><p> </p><p>	When Tethys and her daughters stood up to clear after the meal, the host led his guest to another, much smaller room.</p><p>	‘Now, we can talk at last,’ Oceanus began. ‘I hoped to see you ashamed and shaken, but it seems that you, on the contrary, are proud of your performance at Mecone!’</p><p>	‘Yes, I am proud. Why not? Though it is difficult for me to slaughter and cut animals, I did it and was almost as skillful with the knife as Apollo himself. And I did not let Zeus tread on me as he wanted. I wish that you paid more attention to what we the land folk must endure. An innocent was killed, another one – your own granddaughter – was brought to death a decade later, and no justice!’</p><p>	‘Marsyas died because of his own arrogance and stupidity, and Daphne because of her rebelliousness. If she had got over herself to lay with Apollo, she’d still be alive and well. Are you following their lead now? If acting crazy is your priority, you at the very least should not have started a family. And if I knew this, I’d never have allowed Pronoia to marry you. Have you thought that if you are imprisoned, she will remain alone, in misery, and will be pushed around as the wife of a rebel and a criminal? For the sake of my daughter if you still claim to love her, I want you to promise that Mecone will be your last reckless deed!’</p><p>	There was a kernel of legitimacy in the words of Oceanus, but Prometheus was not going to admit it.</p><p>	‘No use to discuss whether I should have married or not,’ he replied, ‘because I already have married, like it or not. At least, being my wife protects Pronoia from rape.’</p><p>	‘Frankly, I’d prefer her to be with Zeus, even if not quite willingly, because it’s so much safer…’</p><p>	‘But maybe my preferences also matter when it’s about my own damn life,’ Pronoia intervened. She had entered unnoticed and had heard the last words. ‘Why were you so keen to throw me into Zeus’ paws, father, after he had used and discarded Dione and Eurynome and had swallowed Metis? How safe exactly was it for Metis to be with him?’</p><p>	‘I had no choice,’ said Oceanus. ‘I had to think about my other children as well. Had I protested, we all would have been in danger.’</p><p>	‘So I had to deal with Zeus by myself. And he is an enemy that leaves you in tatters even if you purportedly win… I wished to stop existing, I felt bad about my immortality! If Prometheus had not come to propose to me, I would have gone mad. Shame on you, and leave us alone to enjoy whatever happiness we have, while we have it!’</p><p>	She sank into the sofa and buried her face in her hands. Her husband went to her, sat down and embraced her shoulders. She was shivering.</p><p>	‘Let’s reconcile,’ he told Oceanus. ‘No use to argue until tomorrow. Let’s agree to disagree.’</p><p>	‘Peace, then,’ Oceanus sighed. ‘Still, I want to give you the best advice. Learn to know yourself and adapt yourself to new ways. You see that Zeus is a harsh ruler, and is accountable to no one. Think of it later, when you calm down. Now, give me what you have for me.’</p><p>	Prometheus brought out the sheet prepared by his friends in the Glass Hall on Olympus, and handed it to his father in-law. Oceanus looked at the carefully written lines.</p><p>	‘Say it in a few simple words,’ he asked.</p><p>	‘Ambrosia-dependent, the main protections are in four copies.’</p><p>	‘The last is to mean that…’</p><p>	‘Without ambrosia, Leuce would live between a hundred and a hundred and fifty years, presuming no accidents.’</p><p>	‘I was still hoping…’</p><p>	‘Unfortunately, this is how things are.’</p><p>	‘But they were not so before.’</p><p>	‘Yet they have been so for many years, and become ever more so.’</p><p>	‘Will you tell me in more detail? But keep it simple, because I am too old to learn your fancy words.’</p><p>	Prometheus started speaking, and Pronoia occasionally inserted an explanation to help her father understand.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The origin of gods, Zeus' ascent to power, and the beginning of his abuse of power.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I will not make any god (or another mammal) be generated spontaneously or conceived parthenogenetically, even if it is so in canon.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>All data pointed that the numerous race of gods, nymphs and satyrs had originated from a single pair, Uranus and Gaea. With the exception of the three Moirae, who stood above and beyond any research, all cases of disputed origin could be easily explained with unwillingness of their parents to recognize them, or conception in a too drunken state.</p><p>	The earliest memories of Uranus and Gaea were about the two of them, as children, surviving in the woods. Then they had grown up and reproduced. Gaea claimed to have given birth to Pontus on her own, without making love to Uranus. In fact, of course, the inexperienced youths had not realized what exactly they had done. When Prometheus much later made a test, Pontus turned out to be Uranus’ son, and nobody was surprised.</p><p>	After Pontus, Gaea bore Uranus six sons: Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus and Cronus, and six daughters: Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe and Tethys. They were later called first-generation titans. In addition, for a change she had laid with her own son Pontus at least five times, and had with him three sons: Nereus, Thaumas and Phorkys, and two daughters: Ceto and Eurybia. Pontus didn’t like being seduced by his own mother, yet pushing her away seemed too rude to him. So one wonderful day he just took his children, ran away from her and settled in a cave in the sea that was later named after him.</p><p>	All above listed gods were immortal, i.e. they could die only if some mighty force destroyed most of their bodies. They also were normal in every respect and did not age, at least not noticeably, except that Nereus’ hair eventually greyed. Then Gaea bore to Uranus three more sons, Brontes, Steropes and Arges, giants with a single round eye in the middle of the forehead, because of which they were called Cyclopes. Before the father recovered from this shock, his fertile wife bore him three more strange sons, the giants Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes, larger and stronger than even the Cyclopes. They were called the Hundred-Handers. Of course, they in reality did not have a hundred hands, but definitely had more limbs than any vertebrate should have.</p><p>	Gaea had plenty of maternal love for all of her children, regardless of their looks. Uranus, however, liked only his normal progeny. He somehow put up with the Cyclopes, but the Hundred-Handers were too much for him. He hated them at first sight, and soon imprisoned them in Tartarus. Gaea was outraged, and protested by refusing to fulfil her wife’s duties. Uranus started to bed her by force. Then she prepared a great sickle and called her titan sons to rescue her from the evils of their father. From the six, only Cronus was brave (or unscrupulous) enough to take the sickle, to hide in ambush and in the right moment to attack his father, cutting off the organs that inconvenienced Gaea. </p><p>	As it turned out later, during these events she was again pregnant. She bore triplet girls, the Erinyes. They were characterized by outstanding ugliness called dysmorphia in scientific treatises. In addition, they were intolerant to wine (a single sip made them feel unwell) and had a strange behavior: harassing others was the only joy and meaning of their lives.</p><p>	Cronus took his father’s throne on Mount Othrys, and no one objected. However, for the utmost disappointment of Gaea, he had no intention to release the Hundred-Handers. Worse, he imprisoned the Cyclopes with them. He and the other titans of his generation had children of their own: Oceanus and Tethys had numerous sons (river gods) and daughters (the Oceanids); Coeus and Phoebe had two daughters, Asteria and Leto; Crius and Eurybia had three sons, Astraeus, Pallas and Perses; Hyperion and Theia had a son, Helios, and two daughters, Selena and Eos; Iapetus and the Oceanid Clymene had four sons: Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus and Epimetheus; Cronus and Rhea had three sons, Hades, Poseidon and Zeus, and three daughters, Hestia, Demeter and Hera. Thaumas married the Oceanid Electra and they had two daughters, Iris and Arke. These two maidens were masters of flight, and during the war served as messengers, Iris of Zeus and Arke of Cronus. Nereus took as wife the Oceanid Doris and they had many children, all of them girls except one. Phorcys and his sister Ceto had four daughters: first Toosa, and then the Gorgons Stheno, Euryale and Medusa, the latter three suffering of dysmorphia. Those who disliked Phorkys’ family said that the three sisters were so ugly that they could not be observed without harm, and whoever looked at them, would turn into stone.</p><p>	All listed gods except Epimetheus, Hades, the Erinyes and the Gorgons were normal. By the way, the peculiarity of Hades remained unknown for a long time, because Cronus swallowed his children immediately after birth out of fear that some of them would topple him. Prometheus had a childhood memory of his mother scaring him: ‘If you do not obey, I’ll give you to uncle Cronus to eat you!’ Later, he doubted the story about the ingested children, and thought that it was most likely a fabrication. However, it was the pure truth, though nobody could explain how the victims passed through the esophagus. In a word, Cronus became a tyrant no better than his father Uranus. Even the patient Oceanus was fed up, followed the example of Pontus and moved with his family to the sea depths. The sea expanse where nobody yet had dared to swim was named after him.</p><p>	Rhea also got fed up. After years of endless pregnancies and no motherhood, she gathered her courage in both hands and saved her youngest child, Zeus, by hiding him in the island of Crete. Instead of him, she gave Zeus a stone wrapped in linen. As soon as Zeus grew up, he teamed with the Oceanid Metis, and the two conceived a plan. She hanged around Cronus until she gained his trust. Then she gave him a potion that made him vomit his children up. Zeus took them to Mount Olympus and started a revolt against his father that grew into the War of the Titans.</p><p>	Cronus was supported by his brothers Iapetus, Coeus, Crius and Hyperion, and by most of their sons. Oceanus stood aside. Metis of course was with Zeus. At the tenth year of the war, Prometheus and many of Oceanus’ children joined Zeus. Then at last his forces managed to break the gates of Tartarus and release his malformed uncles, namely, the Cyclopes and the Hundred-Handers. With their help, Zeus defeated his adversaries and threw them into Tartarus. Then he found out that he had a new enemy, a mighty many-headed creature named Typhon. Gaea claimed that he was her son, but this could not be true. Unfortunately, no research was done while it was possible, and then it was too late. The best guess about Typhon’s origin was that he had been created by the titans as a last reinforcement for the war. Gaea had looked after him and had sent him to fight Zeus and free her imprisoned titan sons. However, the Thunderer came out victorious again. Typhon was hit by a thunderbold directly into the heart and fell by the sea shore. </p><p>	Soon it became clear, however, that Typhon was immortal like the gods. His charred and breathless but still living body occasionally flapped its limbs, to the horror of locals. The explanation that these were just unconscious convulsions commanded by the spinal cord was met with distrust. Finally, Zeus ordered the body to be lifted and thrown into the crater of Etna, to put an end once and for all. Of course, nobody – not even an immortal – could survive in the lava. However, the other side of this truth was that nobody could see Typhon dying. Therefore, after each earthquake or eruption the local population was whispering in fear that deep in the bosom of the earth beneath Etna, Typhon was wriggling and exhaling fire. “Damn monster!” Zeus said indignantly. “I’ll never again try to kill immortals! Because it is pointless. To kill them, you have to incinerate their body into atoms, and then you have no dead body to show and nobody believes that they have indeed been killed.” </p><p> </p><p>	After defeating Typhon, Zeus sat on the throne and proclaimed himself king of the gods. He made his brother Poseidon ruler of the seas, to the utmost unpleasure of earlier sea dwellers who had colonized the saltwater to avoid having an overlord. Zeus announced that the “Olympians”, i.e. his siblings (and later also his children) were superior to other gods. However, when there was work to be done, non-Olympians were not neglected at all. One of the first decrees by Zeus was to order Prometheus to study deviations from the norm, which apparently worried him.</p><p>	Of these deviations, the case of Epimetheus had the most obvious cause: brain damage during birth. Hades for the moment was a mystery. As for the unusual children of Gaea, they could be due to her habit to engorge herself with plants that were, to put it mildly, unsuitable for food. When Prometheus went to meet Gaea and Uranus and try to find out the root of the problem, he found them at the table, having a supper. They had reconciled long ago and were living in a small hut in the wilderness. In the middle of the table, there was a giant cup of salad decorated with some strange leaves. With a lot of efforts, the guest managed to pry out of his doited grandmother the information that this was false hellebore and she used it to give a pleasant bitterish taste to salads and meals. When Prometheus later fed the same plant to pregnant sheep, the pregnancies ended with one-eyed lambs that died immediately. This explained the Cyclopes’ deviation.</p><p>	It was not yet clear whether the unusual morphology of the Hundred-Handers and the Erinyes was due to the same cause. Prometheus supposed so, and advised his grandmother to give up either the “foods” that nobody else ate, or childbearing. Gaea was outraged: “Do you think that I’ll listen to a know-all brat like you what to eat and whether to have kids? Some other know-alls told me to give up the false hellebore and other herbs, to eat a lot of fresh fruit and to drink milk, because this was allegedly healthy. I listened to them and drank lots of milk during my later pregnancies, though my stomach did not tolerate it and it caused me diarrhea. So what? The next children that I had were even more unusual, but I love them as they are! I haven’t had babies for a long time, but I promise you to have many more, even if just to be contrary to you and Zeus!”</p><p>	And she really gave birth to more children: giant sons with crooked legs, and daughters who became nymphs of the ash forest. Nobody ever found the father (or fathers). The ash-tree nymphs were blameless, but the giants were a strange and problematic tribe. They lived in seclusion, barely spoke, were quick to fight and Prometheus had a premonition that gods would have troubles with them.</p><p>	As for the Gorgons, nothing could be clarified for the moment, because their parents refused to cooperate. Even after the complete victory of the Thunderer, Phorcys and Ceto bravely refused to acknowledge his power. He wanted to deal with them, but had not excuse to do so, because they had not participated in the war and lived peacefully at the end of the inhabited land. When Prometheus went to their home, he was sent away with the words, “Go away, servants of Zeus are not welcome here!” He then composed a report with a short description of the Gorgons, because he didn’t want to give Zeus an occasion to lash out against the family of Phorcys.</p><p> </p><p>	At about the same time, Glass Halls for scientific work were built on Olympus. They were named so because of the abundant and diverse glassware. The first Glass Hall was created by the Cyclopes as an accessory room to their workshop. Truth be told, the Cyclopes had a rare gift for science and technology. They had made a helmet for Hades allowing him to go out during the day, a trident for Poseidon causing waves and even earthquakes, and launchers producing artificial thunderbolts for Zeus. However, the mere list of their creations showed why Prometheus felt uneasy around them: all Cyclopic inventions save the helmet of Hades could only make life worse, or even extinguish it if used against a mortal. Besides, the Cyclopes disliked him. So Prometheus asked Zeus to allow him to make a separate Glass Hall. The Thunderer wasn’t happy but finally consented, for the sake of the work.</p><p>	Among other things, Prometheus studied heredity. Hades helped him to see how every living thing had a thread of life containing a hereditary plan where each trait was written. Once the thread of life of gods and the most important animals and plants was read, it became relatively easy to find how sex was determined, and to see that some deviations were due not to a harmful influence before birth but to errors in the thread of life. The problem of Hades himself was exactly of this kind: a rare combination of two identical errors deprived him of protection against the merciless rays of the sun.</p><p>	Another important finding was that gods differed from animals by their inability to make a necessary substance, an acid. Fortunately, the substance in question was contained in fruit and vegetables, but the absence of these foods in late winter and early spring caused deficiency of the substance and, hence, fatique. Prometheus and Athena, who had already joined the work, managed to produce the acid artificially, and committed a part of the Glass Hall to its production. Mixed with two other acids to improve its taste and sweetened with honey, the needed acid was diluted with water to make a drink that was called nectar. Due to its pleasant taste, nectar became a favorite to quench thirst not only in early spring but also in other seasons. Thanks to this drink, gods made peace with science in general and the study of substances and their transformations in particular. Before this, everyone had an issue with Prometheus because transformations of substances had made the Glass Hall explode more than once.</p><p> </p><p>	By the time when nectar was first served, Olympians and second-generation titans were already siring their own children. Zeus (who was often thinking aloud in those days) began to talk about the need of fertility control to avoid overpopulation. Once Prometheus heard his indignation that Atlas’ wife, the Oceanid Pleione, has followed her husband into exile and was now bearing his children: ‘I have not sent him there to breed!’ The titan reminded him: ‘Hey, you are talking about my brother!’ Zeus of course did not apologize. Prometheus grew increasingly suspicious that the prisoners from Tartarus would never be released, if not for any other reason, then to prevent their reproduction. He had to recognize the danger of overpopulating the Earth with immortals, but could not see any satisfactory solution to this problem, because he could not imagine telling sentient beings that they are forbidden to have children. And he was outraged by the fact that Zeus, while talking about the dangers of overpopulation and the pressing need to control reproduction, was making no effort at all to control his own reproduction. By the time when he berated Atlas’ large family, the number of his own children was already in the range of dozens.</p><p>	As his first wife, Zeus took Metis who had helped him release his siblings. However, after hearing a prophecy that she would give birth to a son to be king over gods and mortals, Zeus had swallowed her as Cronus had swallowed his children. For all the long years before the flood, this was the only time when Zeus limited his own fertility. Many years later, Prometheus took out of his head Athena, who was accepted by everyone as a daughter of Zeus and the swallowed Metis. After growing up, she started working with Prometheus in the Glass Hall. Zeus was not thrilled, but at least he didn’t need to worry that the two could marry, because Athena had vowed virginity.</p><p>	After Metis, Zeus took to his bed the Oceanid Dione. Terrified by her sister’s fate, the poor maiden was trembling like a reed. To her relief, Zeus quickly lost interest in her and let her go wherever she wished. Dione hid herself in a cave at the sea shore, not daring to show herself to anyone, because new life was growing in her belly. She gave birth in secret, and even intended to abandon her baby. Luckily, it turned out to be a girl and, hence, not much of a threat to the father. Dione kept her daughter and called her Aphrodite. The little one grew into a maiden of stunning beauty. After some time, her mother decided to bring her to Olympus. Afraid that Zeus would punish her for hiding his child, Dione claimed to have seen Aphrodite being born by sea foam. Of course, the true paternity of the young goddess did not remain a secret for long, but Dione’s invention became a traditional tale. When it was told to an audience without children or young maidens, it was given a dash of plausibility by saying that it was not any sea foam that had begotten Aphrodite, but the foam from the groan of Uranus when Cronus had castrated him.</p><p>	Then Zeus took as wife the titaness Themis. She gave birth to three daughters: Eunomia, Dike and Eirene. They were collectively called Horae, because each of them had a favorite season. After some time, Zeus and Themis parted but remained friendly. He then took the Oceanid Eurynome. With her, he had three more daughters, the Graces: Aglaia, Thalia and Euphrosyne. After that, he went to the bed of his sister Demeter. However, because two sharp stones cannot grind, their union lasted only until they conceived their daughter Kore. Then Zeus started living with the titaness Mnemosyne and so the nine Muses were born: Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polyhymnia, Urania and Calliope.</p><p>	It was often discussed in later times what would have happened if Zeus had stayed with Mnemosyne, who had great patience and tolerated him cheerfully. However, history knows no “if”s. Not after long, he wished Asteria, daughter of Coeus. She had married Perses and had given birth to their daughter Hecate shortly before the war. Perses had fought at Cronus’ side and was thrown into Tartarus. And while he was imprisoned, the Thunderer decided to take his wife. Many begged Zeus to leave her alone. Prometheus had a vague premonition for a disaster, and voiced it. However, Zeus was relentless. He said that as daughter and wife of his enemies Asteria was his lawful booty, and sent his servants to bring her. However, she was determined not to surrender, and made a bold escape: she snatched Iris’ flight engines and flew over the sea, aiming for the Southern Lands.</p><p>	Zeus declared that he would tolerate no disobedience. He requested the other pair of engines that had remained from Arke and ordered Prometheus, who alone among his folk had used them, to chase and bring back the fugitive. The Titan refused, despite the gut feeling that it would be the lesser evil to obey. ‘Who will go, then? Who is loyal to me?’ asked Zeus. The only volunteers were Kratos and Bia, but they were too heavy for the task. Then Zeus personally strapped the engines to his body and took off.</p><p>	The flight ended disastrously. Whether they collided in air, or Asteria got scared and lost control, only Zeus knew. From the earth, terrified onlookers just saw the maiden flying downwards, and not with a simple fall but with the full force of the powerful engines. Nevertheless, she would most likely survive if she had fallen into the sea. But unfortunately she happened to hit a small rocky island. A moment later, the fuel prepared for oversea flight exploded. This was the end of Asteria. No one, even if immortal, could survive such a blast. A few charred pieces that could have been bone fragments were all that was later found at the site of the crash.</p><p>	Shocked and outraged, the immortals started grumbling and talking to each other that Zeus has gone too far and something had to be done. But while they were deliberating what was to be done and who was to do it, Zeus summoned to Olympus all gods and goddesses (save Oceanus and the folk of Hades) and said that Asteria was a victim of her own folly. She had failed to appreciate him and had fled in the image of a quail, then, when he was about to catch her, had flung herself to the sea and transformed herself into an island. To avoid planting sorrow among immortals, he was strictly banning any talk about Asteria from now on. On his part, as a sign of goodwill even to unreasonable people who didn’t deserve it, he was swearing never again to take the wife of any god, be he free or prisoner, never to punish anyone for his kin’s deeds, and to take care of Hecate, who was now all alone.</p><p>	Zeus indeed showered Hecate with precious gifts and allowed her to roam free by land and sea. As for his fantasy about Asteria’s transformation into a quail and then an island, it was taken by some as truth. The ill-fated island did have the shape of a bird with spread wings. And because it was small and not shown on the old maps, Zeus could claim that it had just appeared. He named it Delos to stress that it had become apparent. Of course, sea dwellers had known it from much earlier times. They had called it Ortygia because of its bird-like shape. However, many terrestrial folks were unaware of this. Those who knew the truth gave the island a new name, Asteria. It was pronounced only among near and dear, and in a low voice. The name Delos was never accepted by the gods, but in later times became popular among humans.</p><p>	Some had hoped that Zeus would repent and settle, but this was not to pass. After Asteria, he summoned her sister Leto, and she was compelled to obey. Prometheus said that he was foreseeing great trouble for Zeus if he would lay with Leto. This was the first time when the titan out of despair abused his prophetic gift. However, his lie was in vain. Zeus did not believe that Prometheus could foretell the future, and told him to swear that he was telling the truth. Prometheus refused, claiming to be offended. Zeus mocked the “made-up seer”, grabbed Leto and impregnated her. When her pregnancy was about to end, she fled her husband and went to the island of Asteria, where she delivered the twins Apollo and Artemis. Despite everything, she eventually took them and returned to Olympus, where she was dwelling ever since.</p><p>	Afer Leto, Zeus took his sister Hera. However, she insisted to be his wife not as he understood it, i.e. to share his bed until he would get bored of her, but in the old meaning of the word. Therefore, all later unions of Zeus were more or less secret, which made Prometheus’ work more difficult.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>As if having Zeus as a ruler is not enough of a disaster, problems with reproduction arise in the divine community. Mortal children are born to immortals, and deviations become the new norm.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As years were passing, a new phenomenon became evident. It was not quite a deviation, but nevertheless was strange and worrying. While both sexes had been equally distributed in earlier births, now girls were becoming more and more prevalent. Nereus and the Oceanid Doris had only daughters, the Nereids. Atlas and Pleione also had 12 daughters and no son so far. Zeus himself had from his first seven wives until his marriage to Hera a total of 19 daughters and only one son, Apollo.</p><p>	Zeus stubbornly insisted that there was nothing to worry about. He was afraid that someone would do to him what he had done to his father Cronus, so he preferred fewer boys and more girls to be born. As soon as the girls grew up, he pressed them to vow virginity, if they were his daughters, and to lay with him, if they weren't. He often told Hera that with the current male-to-female ratio, it was impossible to perpetuate old-fashioned titanic relics such as marriage, because for most maidens there were no husbands anyway. Prometheus, however, held the opinion that even if the female prevalence was very convenient for Zeus, it was not normal and had to be investigated. So he and Athena started to research this problem.</p><p>	Before they had made any progress, however, a much more worrying problem came up and had to be addressed: descendants of immortals started to show mortal traits. Maybe the Earth was not threatened by overpopulation after all. The first god to observe the change was Atlas. He complained in a letter to Prometheus that some of his daughters had begun to age. The two brothers had never been close, and the war had alienated them because Prometheus’ siding with Zeus had angered Atlas. But to the elder brother’s credit, his concern for his children overcame the hard feelings.</p><p>	Prometheus went to see the situation on the spot. Zeus was not happy that his employee was taking a break from his other work and going to the end of the inhabited world. He grumbled that Atlas had probably imagined the problem or, worse, invented it to earn a pardon and a return to civilization. However, the aging of Atlas’ daughters, though very slow, was genuine. Strangely, it was observed inly in the five younger maidens, and was advancing fastest in the youngest ones. The six older daughters, collectively called Pleiades, showed no signs of aging. The worried parents asked what would happen to their children. When Prometheus honestly replied that he did not know, they did not believe him. Because he was a seer and a researcher, others often assumed that he knew everything, but this was very far from the truth. All he was seeing was a vague dark shadow over the future of the five younger girls; but if he admitted this to his brother and sister in-law, would it be of any help to them?</p><p>	Next, a rumour was heard that Medusa, the youngest daughter of Phorcys, was also changing. ‘Good news, hopefully the same thing afflicts their other children,’ Zeus said. However, no one of Phorcys’ family complained. They were too proud to seek help or sympathy from Olympians and their servants.</p><p>	Shortly thereafter, the Cyclopes also complained that they were aging. This finally made Zeus change his tune. Though he did not love the Cyclopes (only their mother loved them), they were his power base. Moreover, it was becoming clear that aging was not limited to the families of Atlas and Phorcys but affected others as well, and could soon become everybody’s problem. So Zeus told Prometheus and Athena to halt all other tasks. He even forbade Prometheus to leave Olympus until the mystery was unraveled. He also ordered Apollo to join the work. The gifted Olympian, though still quite young, had already domesticated cattle and sheep. Strictly speaking, the domestication of these animals, and also of horses and donkeys, had been started long ago by the titans, but they had quickly abandoned this project for the sake of others, and had brought it only halfway. So the credit for the flocks of livestock rightly belonged to Apollo. He also had a talent for healing. Therefore initially everyone hoped that he would strengthen the team. It turned out, however, that between him and Prometheus, the understanding and trust needed for team work could not be built. Nevertheless, the three made an effort to work together for some time, for the sake of the common good.</p><p>	First of all, they urgently sought what made gods immortal. Immortality was due to built-in protections in the thread of life. There were several types of them. Most important were those against aging (for youth), against damage (for self-renewal and resistance to injury), against change (for protection of the hereditary plan), for good respiration, and against partial immortality. (“Partial immortality” was a euphemism for the tendency of tiny particles from animal bodies to transform into monstrously growing lumps.) All these protections, which in animals could be found only in a vestigial and dispersed form (and those for respiration isolated from everything else), in gods were arranged and repeated manifold in certain places of the thread of life.</p><p>	Moreover, the protections of gods had strange peculiarities at both ends: they finished with characteristic repeated sequences. Shortly before them, there were at one end other characteristic sequencies of 7 and 9 symbols, separated by other symbols of various kind but constant number, 12. The same was present at the other end, but the middle group included 23 symbols instead of 12. Nobody had the slightest idea what this all was about.</p><p>	Inter-generational comparison revealed that the immortality protections were represented by highest copy numbers in the oldest gods. Some of their descendants hadn’t enough protections to avoid death after a heavy accident, and the youngest ones hadn’t enough to avoid even spontaneous aging as known from animals. It looked quite probable that this aging would eventually end with spontaneous death. In other words, only the first generations of gods were truly immortal. The next were conditionally immortal like centaurs, and the youngest ones were mortal.</p><p>	‘Why is this happening?’ asked Zeus when he heard of these findings. Researchers could only shrug. They had observed before pieces of the threads of life of various beings to be lost, moved or amplified. But such events were extremely rare. As a whole, the hereditary plan was kept and transferred into the progeny intact, except for the careful mixing-up that accompanied sexual reproduction. So nobody could explain why immortality protections tended to disappear from the hereditary plan in just a few generations. When the researchers stayed up late at night without any progress, as happened quite often, Athena always said that they would likely find out why the immortality package was disappearing, if they knew how and why it had appeared in the first place. After all, all complex creatures save the gods were mortal. Why were gods, or at least some of them, exempt from this law of nature? Nobody knew.</p><p>	Later on, when the researchers started to change hereditary plans by inserting pieces of other threads of life, they saw that the convenient way to accomplish this was by inserting repeated sequences at the ends of rearranged pieces, like the sequences found at the ends of protections. This was an important cue about the origin of gods. Until then, it had been presumed (for lack of a better theory) that, similarly to animals and plants, gods had originated from an older animal species. However, the immortality protections did not look like something formed spontaneously. They looked like something crafted. The unknown researchers who had made them were called The Creators. They were rarely talked about, but there was a suspicion that the Moirae had something to do with them.</p><p> </p><p>	Another interesting feature of immortality protections was their position in the thread of life. Many of them were located in the female determinant. This part of the hereditary plan was named so when it was found to be in two copies in females and only in one in males, with the males having also the male determinant in one copy. Later, it was discovered that an embryo developed as female not because of the double dose “female determinant” but from the mere absence of male determinant. The unsuitable name, however, had caught on and was kept.</p><p>	The protections were in the small region which was really used twice more in females; in the younger descendants of Uranus and Gaea, so many copies of the protections were lost that the region was visibly shortened. This meant that in every generation, females had twice more protections than males. Prometheus and Athena supposed that some male embryos had obtained so few protections that they had not only become mortal but had died long before birth, leading to the preponderance of girls in recent times. This hypothesis was difficult to test, but explained the facts well.</p><p>	Meanwhile, girls continued to prevail among newborns. Worse, an increasing proportion of these youths were mortal. The first signs of aging affected the intellect and the memory. After having lived for 200, 100 or just 50 years, before the first wrinkle on the face and the first grey thread in the hair, the aging would become slow-thinking and absent-minded. Alas, this would often deprive them of the love of their parents. Not all could continue to love a “defective” child. At least in the sea, where it was an ancient unwritten law not to leave anyone behind, the imperfect progeny continued to enjoy the cozy parental home. River gods also cared for their sons (second-generation river gods) and daughters (water nymph like Daphne). However, many other parents just sent their aging children into the wilderness, to fend for themselves as wood nymphs and satyrs. Of course, the miserable life caused further decline of their mental capacities.</p><p>	Large-scale observations were carried out on the status of numerous descendants of Uranus and Gaea. Samples were collected from them and tested in the Glass Hall for immortality protections. The following picture emerged: When the protections were in 20 or more copies, they ensured immortality and eternal youth, or if there was any aging, it was too slow to be detected by the available methods. With 16-19 copies, there was conditional immortality: the body and the mind did not age, not visibly at least, but an accident could cause death. With fewer than 16 protections, the individual was mortal, i.e. subject to aging and presumably spontaneous death. The smaller the copy number, the worse it was. The Cyclopes were borderline with 14-15 copies each, Atlas’ younger children had between 6 and 13, and many satyrs and some nymphs had as few as 3. Nobody had yet seen what advanced aging looked like, but it was clear that it would be observed fairly soon, and it would not be pretty.</p><p> </p><p>	How could the youths born with few protections be saved? It was apparently impossible to add more copies to every tiny piece of their bodies. But maybe the available copies could be made to work harder and so to perform as if they were more numerous. It was already known that the elements of the hereditary plan could change their performance to match the needs. Bones, blood, brain, skin, eye – they were all based on the same plan, and the huge differences between them were due to different parts of it being active in different organs. However, nobody could find a way to enhance the work of the immortality protections.</p><p>	Apollo advocated another strategy: to stop wasting efforts on the mortals already born, whom he considered to be of little value anyway, and to find a way to prevent the reduction of the immortality protections in those still to be born, so that they could have immortality if they deserved it. This was typical for Apollo, who found it very important to determine who was well-bred and who was from a poor stock, who deserved to have large progeny and who would better remain with none at all. Maybe his early work with livestock domestication and breeding had warped his mentality forever. However, not all of his ideas deserved to be ignored. Whenever Prometheus felt despair because of the impossibility to boost the protections, he started to think in the direction suggested by Apollo. There was a vague clue offered by Gaea’s children. In all other families, a strict correlation was observed: the later the birth, the fewer the child’s protections. However, it was not so with Gaea’s children. The Cyclopes were aging, while the Hundred-Handers and the Erinyes were not, despite being born later. And while the immortality of the Erinyes could be explained by their female sex, that of the Hundred-Handers defied any explanation.</p><p>	Often, when accumulated knowledge is ready to climb a new step, some small detail becomes paramount. So Prometheus remembered what Gaea had told him in passing: that, while pregnant with the Hundred-Handers, she had not eaten any false hellebore, and had instead drunk a lot of milk, despite being intolerant to it. What if the milk had made a difference? It sounded absurd, but why not to sacrifice a few days to check? And he checked: took a little of his flesh in a glass and added milk to it. The result was amazing. The protections intensified their work! Finally, there was a breakthrough after decades-long relentless but fruitless research. They quickly set to find out which component of milk had caused the observed change. It turned out to be the milk sugar.</p><p>	By coincidence, at that very moment Zeus summoned the three researchers to report. There had been very little progress up to this point, and he looked unhappy. However, Athena quickly cheered him up. She said that they expected to produce soon a substance giving immortality to some currently lacking it. Zeus asked what sort of a substance it was, and Athena answered that it was called ambrosia. She apparently didn’t want to reveal how much work still awaited them, and she correctly supposed that Zeus would be satisfied for the moment just to hear the substance’ name. So her quick flash of inspiration created one of the most important words in the language of the gods.</p><p>	At that moment, Prometheus, whose ability to grasp other people’s thoughts was amazingly poor (and this was the cause of most troubles in his life), also had sudden insight. He asked Zeus whether the ambrosia, when produced, would be available for everyone. After a short reflection, the Thunderer admitted that the substance of immortality would not be for everyone. Only the best would receive it, while the others would not qualify, of them those of little value and those guilty of crimes least of all. In fact, it was even good that mortality had spread by itself, otherwise its artificial introduction would have been necessary to prevent overpopulation.</p><p>	Outraged, Prometheus refused to work on this project anymore and insisted to be allowed to return home. He said he had contributed enough, and Athena and Apollo could very well complete the task without him. Zeus remarked that with his disobedience, the titan was depriving his eventual future children of any chance to enjoy the ambrosia, and forbade him to enter the Glass Hall again or to transform substances anywhere. Prometheus ironically asked whether he could at least prepare and use a firelighter, or he had to light fire by friction of two pieces of wood, like in the primitive bygone days. Zeus quite seriously advised Prometheus not to let the fire in his hearth be extinguished, and added that if it nonetheless happened, he could always visit Olympus and take fire from Hestia. Athena defended Prometheus. Her father got angry and banned her from the ambrosia task as well. Then he ordered Apollo to continue the work with the help of the Cyclopes, who had a vested interest in the substance of immortality.</p><p>	So Prometheus left Olympus, and Athena no longer worked on the ambrosia. Nevertheless, she sometimes peeked into the Glass Hall of Apollo and the Cyclopes and gave them quick but valuable advice. For example, their first idea about the ambrosia was to purify milk sugar and to give it through the mouth as a food supplement. After quietly making fun of their stupidity, Athena paid a visit to them and reminded them of an important property of milk sugar: that, if ingested, it is very efficiently destroyed by digestive juices and has no chance to penetrate into the flesh. Gaea was apparently unable to digest milk sugar, therefore something had happened with her which would not happen with another person.</p><p>	The four researchers did not even thank her for the tip, but apparently took it into account. After a lot of efforts, trials and errors they created a derivative of milk sugar which upon ingestion was absorbed by the intestines without being degraded. This was the ambrosia. Its exact composition was kept in secret, but it was claimed that if taken regularly, it would make immortal anyone with at least 4 copies of the immortality protections. It seemed that the gods finally had what they wanted.</p><p> </p><p>	The introduction of ambrosia divided the descendants of Uranus and Gaea into new categories: true immortals (with 20 or more copies of the protections), mortals (with fewer than 4 copies) and ambrosia-dependents (with 4-19 copies). The latter were immortal if they were eating ambrosia, and more or less mortal if they didn’t. This way, youths otherwide doomed to aging and death could receive immortality. However, this brought about new problems.</p><p>	One of them was the fact that Olympians who were immortal anyway engorged themselves with ambrosia, while most of those doomed to aging and death had no access to it. Prometheus increasingly worried about his nieces. He wrote to Atlas: “They have found a cure, but keep it for themselves, and let the others die. So your children can only try to avoid accidents.” Sometimes Prometheus even considered producing ambrosia secretly, but this would be too dangerous. From time to time, Hermes visited him to check whether he was not violating Zeus’ ban, and searched his home and workshop. The most annoying thing about those visits was that Hermes always brought along Kratos and Bia, as if he was expecting resistance.</p><p>	On the other hand, Prometheus was suspicious about the long-term effects of ambrosia, at least until they were properly studied. Apollo had offered it to the privileged gods without even trying it first on animals. Athena and Prometheus, after congratulating his success, stressed that it was necessary to observe its effects on animals with inserted immortality protections. ‘Especially on pregnant females,’ Prometheus added. He worried that the new food supplement, with its ability to change the work of the hereditary plan, could be as dangerous for the developing embryo as the false hellebore of Grandma Gaea. After all, nobody knew why the Hundred-Handers or the Erinyes had such deviations. What if the milk sugar was to blame?</p><p>	Apollo ignored the advice, apparently attributing it to mere envy. Moreover, he boasted that the ambrosia not only helped those eating it but improved their progeny, making it immortal and restoring the sex ratio. Prometheus went to Zeus and appealed to him to withdraw the ambrosia from the tables until its effects, especially those in pregnancy, were properly studied. Zeus chastised him and told him not to poke his nose into other people’s business and not to succumb to petty envy because someone had succeeded where he had failed. So Prometheus could only observe the great experiment that his people’s nutrition had become. After each birth, he inquired whether the parents had eaten ambrosia. Nobody liked this question. To those deprived of ambrosia, it stressed their inferior status; to the ambrosia eaters, it implied that if something was wrong with the child, their consumption of ambrosia had caused it.</p><p> </p><p>	Despite his bravado, Zeus was apparently scared, because he insisted after his wedding to Hera to abstain from ambrosia initially. Moreover, he wanted Prometheus to exclude his family from the research and reports. The titan said that he would then stop research altogether. Zeus cast a thunderous look but relented for once, and his children with Hera were described like all others.</p><p>	The first of them, a daughter named Eileithya, was normal but ambrosia-dependent. Then Zeus and Hera resumed eating ambrosia. Their second child, Ares, was immortal and passed as normal. And indeed, his body plan and functioning was perfect. However, his behavior could be called normal only if the limits of the norm were mercifully stretched.</p><p>	So far, Apollo’s optimism was justified. However, Zeus’ next child, Hebe, lagged in her bodily development. It turned out that her immortality protections were too numerous and interfered with her growth and maturation. Eros, son of Aphrodite and Ares, had the same peculiarity. However, while Eros liked his eternal childhood, Hebe wanted to grow up. Apollo, Athena and Prometheus gathered together to help the girl. They found substances that, regularly applied under her skin, made her grow. After the treatment, Hebe reached the stature and general appearance of a twenty-year old and was quite happy. However, the whole affair had made her parents anxious, and this became apparent at their next child.</p><p>	Prometheus of course knew about Hera’s new pregnancy, but not when exactly it had to end. He expected a message from Olympus about the birth. Instead, he received a note from Athena: “Hera is no longer pregnant. She claims that her swollen belly has spontaneously returned to normal, and no baby has been born born. Do you consider this possible?” Prometheus went to see what was happening. Zeus hid in his rooms like a coward, leaving Hera to cope alone. She kept her guest on unmixed wine and small talk for over an hour. Prometheus finally felt compelled to ask her directly about the baby. Hera explained with a lot of fuss that it had stopped kicking several days ago, then her belly started to shrink, and now she felt as if she had not been pregnant at all. ‘Swear by Styx that this is true!’ Prometheus said. He saw an evil spark in Hera’s eyes, and knew that he had just made a dangerous enemy. Then Hera leaned back, closed her eyes and admitted that she had given birth, but the child – a boy – was weak and so ugly that she was terrified. Some impulse made her grab him and throw it off Olympus to the sea. Prometheus was outraged, and told her that even dogs do not throw their young like this. Then he went to search for the unfortunate little one.</p><p>	He didn’t have to search for long. Eurynome said that she had found the child and brought him to the Nereis Thetis, and they were now caring for him. The ugliness of little Hephaestus (as they named him) was due to a cleft lip, which was stitched, though he would never be handsome. His general weakness passed spontaneously. However, his parents had damaged him with their attempt to get rid of him: his right hip was fractured, and this made him lame for life.</p><p>	Prometheus suspected right from the beginning that the deviations of Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus were caused by the ambrosia. However, he knew that correlation did not necessarily mean causation, and made an effort to test other possible causes. Zeus and Hera were siblings, and animal studies had clearly shown that mating of close relatives was dangerous for the progeny. Each animal, even the healthiest one, had hidden errors here and there in its thread of life. They did not harm it, because the hereditary plan of animals (with the exception of sex determinants in males) was double, and the faulty pieces had a normal copy that managed to do the job. However, some of these hidden errors often accumulated in two copies in children of related parents, and became manifested. Had this happened in Hades, who was also a child of siblings? Was the same phenomenon to blame for the dysmorphia of the Gorgons, whose parents were siblings? Was it in action in the children of Zeus and Hera?</p><p>	At this stage, the research was predictably hindered, because the royal parents refused testing. Because consanguineous marriages usually revealed old rather than new errors, Prometheus tested Rhea, Uranus and Gaea, but nothing of value came out. So the next step was to study the thread of life of as many children born after use of ambrosia as possible, and to see how exactly the ambrosia had immortalized them, and whether it had affected them also in other, less welcome ways. The result was unexpected and worrying. It turned out that the “ambrosia children” had additional copies of the immortality protections, dispersed chaotically in the thread of life. Sometimes, these copies had inserted themselves in the middle of an important piece of the hereditary plan, leading to deviations. However, in most cases the deviations were due to other, apparently random errors in the plan.</p><p> </p><p>	The failure to beget a truly immortal and at the same time normal child spoiled the relationship of Zeus and Hera. The king of gods decided that the problems with his youngest children were likely due to some weakness of his wife. After all, he had had other women before Hera, and all of them had given birth to immortal normal children. So he started to look around for new wives to give him more children.</p><p>	It was exactly at this time when the Pleiad Maia visited him. She was a true immortal, but the fear for her younger sisters had broken her spirit. After a long internal struggle, she had decided to ask Zeus to take mercy upon them and give them ambrosia. She stayed with Prometheus and Pronoia for the night before storming Olympus. They disapproved her idea. ‘He will take advantage of you. He is a predator,’ Pronoia warned. Maia neglected the warning and very soon saw the truth herself. And although she wanted badly to save the Hyades, the unscrupulous advances of Zeus disgusted her. She fled his embrace and Olympus and walked through the wilderness for a long time without a direction. She finally hid in a cave, but Zeus found her even there. “My good-for-nothing daughter Maia has set without my permission to ask Zeus for ambrosia,” Atlas wrote to Prometheus. “I fear that she could get an extension of life, but not exactly in the form of ambrosia. Please stop her and send her back to me, before she has brought me a grandchild with our family’s worst enemy.” From the far-away dwelling place of Atlas, letters were coming with great delay. When this one finally reached its recipient, the grandchild – Hermes – had already seen the light of day. As Prometheus was registering him in the dim light of the cave as “a male newborn without visible deviations”, the baby was trying to take his quill with dexterity unexpected of such a tender age. </p><p>	Zeus had stopped eating ambrosia before conceiving his new son, so Hermes turned out to be dependent because the number of his protections was too low. He grew up normal, save for his persistent tendency to lie with and without occasion, and to steal everything that was not reliably nailed. His father gave him ambrosia and took him to Olympus. Later on, Zeus had a lot of girls with various mothers, but was not so kind to them. They were dependent on ambrosia but never received it. Instead, they were left to fend for themselves as wood-nymphs.</p><p> </p><p>	After Zeus, Poseidon also unwittingly provided valuable data for research. After Zeus made him king of the saltwater, he decided to marry a daughter of the sea in order to consolidate his power. He liked most the beautiful Nereis Amphitrite. She did not desire him, but Poseidon was quite like Zeus in not acknowledging female refusals. Amphitrite ran off to the Western Strait and hid with Atlas, but Poseidon’t emissaries eventually found her, and the wedding took place. In a year, the new queen of the sea gave birth to a daughter named Cymopoleia, immortal and normal, though well above the average height. Their second daughter Rhode was also normal but ambrosia-dependent. Annoyed that his child was not truly immortal, Poseidon started to engorge himself with ambrosia, and sought comfort with Toosa daughter of Phorcys. She gave birth to an immortal Cyclops son whom they named Polyphemus. Prometheus asked her in detail about her lifestyle during the pregnancy, but she swore that she had lived healthily and had not even looked upon a false hellebore or another poisonous plant.</p><p>	Observations of other families confirmed the initial data: the ambrosia did make children immortal and did restore the normal sex ratio, but at the cost of a significant increase of deviations. Fairly soon, couples having access to ambrosia faced a dilemma what child they preferred: normal but ambrosia-dependent, or truly immortal but most likely with deviations. It was intriguing that, as Polyphemus’ case showed, the father’s consumption of ambrosia before the conception turned out to be almost as important as the mother’s consumption during pregnancy.</p><p>	Looking at the children being born, some goddesses decided to vow celibacy. For example, Hestia – the quiet and modest Zeus’ sister who was maintaining the hearth of Olympus, once peeped into Prometheus’ writings out of curiosity. After a quick look upon several reports, she decided to remain a virgin. Artemis and Athena who had already decided this anyway (Artemis because of her convictions, and Athena for undisclosed reasons), became ever happier with their choice over time, and said that begetting new children in this situation becomes unethical.</p><p>	No all agreed, however. Atlas and Pleione, though well aware of the aging of their younger daughters, had also a son whom they named Hyas. However, many married couples decided to stop procreating, though in principle they wished more children. Nereus and Doris made this choice after postponing it for quite a long time. Before Zeus started sending them ambrosia, they had had only daughters with 10-18 copies of the protections. After they started eating the magic food supplement, they had their fiftieth daughter, Thetis who later became foster mother of Hephaestus. The girl looked normal; her immortality status was not known initially, because the parents did not submit a sample for testing. They hastily decided that ambrosia did not create deviations in their children, and continued pulling their luck by the tail. Next, they had their only son Glaucus. He was truly immortal but had a terrible deviation: his legs had fused into a single extremity. The two openings normally positioned between the legs were absent, and Apollo had to create them by surgery. Prometheus helped by keeping Glaucus relatively sedated, and the memory made him shiver ever since. Only after this Nereus and Doris decided that their house was already full.</p><p>	Prometheus thought that Oceanus and Tethys would do well to follow their example. It was not that they lacked children. He had told them many years ago that if they kept reproducing without ambrosia, their next children would most likely be dependent of it, and if they continued reproducing with ambrosia, they could expect children with deviations. However, for Oceanus and Tethys, no number of children seemed enough. They made at least one per year, and started confusing their children’s names. After that conversation, they had begotten a lot of daughters with 5-15 copies, meaning natural life expectancy between 300 and 10,000 years. Then they had started to eat ambrosia and had had a son named Achelous, with two horn-like outgrowths on his forehead. Then they had stopped the ambrosia again… and now they had a 14-year-old daughter whose life without ambrosia would be almost as short as that of the humans.</p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Prometheus is told that he has unwittingly served as a kingmaker. Then he discusses mortality with young Leuce, and makes an important decision together with his wife Pronoia.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>‘Isn’t it possible to restore immortality without producing deviations?’ Oceanus asked.</p><p>	‘Even if it is, we do not know how. But I suspect that it isn’t. All other creatures, or at least all that are large enough to observe without a magnifying glass, age and die naturally. This cannot be accidental. It sounds terribly, but I think that things fall back to their due places, and with the ambrosia we are just waging a hopeless battle against the laws of nature.’</p><p>	‘This thinking is very convenient for you, at least as long as you lack children. But imagine that you have one like Leuce. If Zeus gives you ambrosia, won’t you give it to your child? Or are the laws of nature dearer to your heart?’</p><p>	‘Oh yes, if I had a child and ambrosia, I’d give it to the child and so I’d postpone the problem with one generation. Because the children of the ambrosia-dependent will have so few protections that even if they eat nothing but ambrosia, they’ll still be mortal. But your “if” touches the real problem, the politics. Zeus wants to use the ambrosia as a lever to obtain full obedience. And because Pronoia and I will not be fully obedient, he will not give us ambrosia. My father was right. I had to side with Cronus. He left us some freedom, and was fairer to women.’</p><p>	‘He did treat women better, but not because of fairness, and you know it,’ Oceanus countered. ‘Cronus feared his children, and with a good reason. He expected one of them to take his throne, therefore he tried not to have many children and swallowed them upon birth. As for the freedom… do you really think it?’</p><p>	‘I know it. He let us talk freely. I have argued with him, and he has never lashed out like Zeus.’</p><p>	‘You are wrong. Cronus was quite offended by your criticism about the use of brute force. There is no ruler who would tolerate such opinions. Or if there is, his name is neither Cronus nor Zeus. So old Cronus was preparing to lock you up in Tartarus, and your father was begging him to be merciful one more time. I thought that you knew this and that’s why you disappeared and then showed up in the army of Zeus.’</p><p>	‘I didn’t know this. I am hearing it for the first time, and it is difficult for me to believe.’</p><p>	‘I can swear that it is true. But I wonder, if you didn’t know it, why did you hide?’</p><p>	‘I didn’t hide at all. I accompanied Helios to the Southern Lands to watch a solar eclipse.’</p><p>	‘I had no idea that you are such a fan of solar eclipses.’</p><p>	‘They are amazing!’</p><p>	‘And Helios was apparently mad about astronomy even in those days.’</p><p>	‘He was good at astronomy and enjoyed it, yes. But why mad? On the contrary, he is very sensible. He wisely took no side in the war, like you. Then he convinced Zeus that astronomy was paramount. And now, despite being son of a prisoner, Helios lives a sweet life. He has settled at a safe distance from Olympus, works what he loves to do, Zeus honors him, sends him food and doesn’t ask anything of him. Even Olympians can envy him!’</p><p>	‘You are right that he is prucent. Did you greet him as you were coming? I suppose that he no longer wants to be your friend.’</p><p>	Prometheus looked Oceanus into the eyes and just nodded. He despised his uncle and considered him an old god with no backbone, interested only in his own well-being, whose spirit like the ocean water had no shape of its own and took the shape of whatever vessel it was put into. However, no one could deny that Oceanus knew life and people well. Helios was living nearby with his sisters and mother, and Prometheus and Pronoia always visited him before coming to Oceanus. But now, the astronomer just muttered a cold greeting from behind the fence, and did not invite them to come in.</p><p>	‘And why did you take the side of Zeus when you came back?’ Oceanus asked.</p><p>	‘Because I was stupid. I thought that he would rule with reason and goodwill rather than force, and the world under him would become a better place.’</p><p>	‘And how could Zeus pass all of his thunderbolts and earthquakes as non-violence and goodwill?’</p><p>	‘It was allegedly just for a short time, until the victory. I was too gullible.’</p><p>	‘My Metis also believed him, and this was her undoing…’</p><p>	Oceanus sighed, and wrinkles of sincere sorrow appeared on his face. Prometheus and Pronoia looked at each other, tempted to reveal what had happened to Metis. But common sense prevailed, and they kept silence. Oceanus was not trustworthy.</p><p>	‘So the end of the war brought you disappointment?’ he asked.</p><p>	‘This is an understatement.’</p><p>	‘How do you call your method to search for the truth, trial and error? As far as I understand, you made a trial with Zeus, and it turned out to be an error. Are you planning another trial?’</p><p>	‘No, I am not.’</p><p>	‘But on the way to Mecone, you talked as if you were.’</p><p>	‘I just don’t want him to bully me.’</p><p> </p><p>	<i>…We talked about the recent events and Oceanus said something that, if true – and it sounded true, – would mean that I bear tremendous responsibility for the present state of the affairs…</i></p><p> </p><p>	‘But if he does not bully you, how will people know that he is the ruler? Though I admit that he is somewhat too harsh to you, keeping in mind that it was exactly you who gave the power to him and all his young gods.’</p><p>	‘Me?!’ exclaimed Prometheus with utmost surprise and disbelief. Though he had taken offense when Zeus had denied his contribution to the war, he knew very well that he had been a pathetic warrior.</p><p>	‘Who else? By this time, your prophetic gift was already widely known. Everybody said that Iapetos' lad may be as crazy as it goes but when he says that something will happen, it does happen. So, seeing you as Zeus' supporter, what could they think? That you are siding with Zeus because he will win. I was not so sure. I thought you knew that Cronus had trouble in store for you and so you might have joined Zeus just to not give up without a fight. However, listening to other people's talk, I realized that they would follow you and Zeus' power would increase...’ </p><p>	‘Some prophecies fulfill themselves,’ Prometheus said. ‘And if you invent one, it will take care of itself.’</p><p>	‘Well said. So I advised my children, if someone wants to go to war, to side with Zeus. My dear daughter Styx was the first. She took her children, whom you dislike for mysterious reasons, and went to him. Many others followed. So Zeus gathered enough force to storm the gates of Tartarus. The rest is history."</p><p> </p><p>	Prometheus sat silent for some time to digest the news, then asked:</p><p>	‘Talking about history, do you know who has created the "Golden" humans?’</p><p>	‘Your father, with the help of Hyperion and Coeius, and following an order by Cronus.’</p><p>	‘And why?’</p><p>	‘What a question! To work instead of us, of course. Why else anybody would trouble himself to create beings in our image from clay?’</p><p>	The belief that humans were made from clay was universal, and Prometheus had long ago stopped his attempts to correct those who didn’t know not only the basic principles of life but also the difference between the main element of living bodies and the similar element found in clay.</p><p>	‘Centaurs were a failure,’ Oceanus continued, ‘but I think humans with a little more work would have become a success, if the war had not got in the way.’</p><p>	‘Were the centaurs created with the same purpose?’</p><p>	‘Yes, they were intended to become clever workhorses not needing anyone to direct them. However, most of them turned out wild and uncontrollable. And the few who are not, are in the other extreme, too civilized. Do you know any of them?’</p><p>	‘Only Chiron from Mount Pelion.’</p><p>	‘So you know what a wise and noble being he is. You cannot yoke him to plow, can you? So we left all centaurs free and decided to use as workforce ordinary horses and oxen plus humans.’</p><p>	Prometheus asked himself whether his father had also been misled, or had viewed things differently. While he was thinking of this, Oceanus half-jokingly returned to the previous subject:</p><p>	‘So you say that you wanted a better world? The trouble is that you still seem to want it, and this is not good at all. Some of my children also ask many questions why things are as they are. They can be forgiven, because they are still young, and I guard them against wrong steps. After some time, they become wiser and grow out of it. But those like you, who are in their mature years and still want a better world, are very dangerous. If I were the ruler, I could forgive those who conspire against me, but not those who strive to correct the world. Nobody needs such trouble! The Thunderer must like you very much to be so merciful. If I were him, I would have locked you up in Tartarus and thrown away the key long ago!’</p><p> </p><p>	In the depth of night, Prometheus felt some presence in the room. He opened his eyes and saw a large figure dressed in white, holding a flameless lamp and standing menacingly over the bed. It was Bia.</p><p>	‘Why are you here?’ she growled. ‘You were told to wait in your home! Did you think that the ocean could hide you from us?’</p><p>	Prometheus pushed himself to sitting position and woke up, this time really. The uninvited guest did not disappear but shrinked to the size of a slim child.</p><p>	‘Leuce!’ whispered Pronoia.</p><p>	‘Yes, it’s me. Why are you looking so scared? Did you mistake me for a sea monster?’</p><p>	Prometheus had mistaken her for a terrestrial monster but of course did not admit it.</p><p>	‘Why aren’t you sleeping?’ Pronoia asked. ‘What time is it?’</p><p>	‘Just past midnight,’ replied the girl. ‘Do you want to sleep very badly? I want to talk with you without my parents knowing it.’</p><p>	Pronoia moved closer to Prometheus, making space for her little sister to sit down on the bed. The surreal light of the lamp illuminated the white night shirt of Leuce, her pale skin and fair, almost white hair.</p><p>	‘They never tell me anything,’ she complained. ‘They hide everything from me, even if it touches me near. But today I managed to take a look at the sheet from the Glass Hall. I can read quite well.’</p><p>	The two adults said nothing.</p><p>	‘It was written there that I have only four copieis of the protections,’ continued Leuce. ‘This means that if I don’t eat ambrosia, I shall grow old and die after a mere hundred years or so. I expected something of this sort, but not so bad. Some of my sisters are also ambrosia-dependent, but they have at least three hundred years of natural life span! Dad had said that he and Mom followed Prometheus’ advice and ate no ambrosia when they conceived me, and that’s why I am like this.’</p><p>	Prometheus felt anger towards his silver-tongued uncle. He had not given advice about eating or non-eating of ambrosia but had just explained the likely consequences of both. This was called informed choice. And if he had given Oceanus and Tethys any advice, it had been to be satisfied with their children already born, who at that time exceeded five thousands nine hundred. But no, they had decided to round the number at six thousands at any cost, and were now shifting the responsibility for their choice to Prometheus. But why was he so angry? After all, it had turned out that he was anyway responsible for everything that was wrong with their people.</p><p>	‘Yes, I gave such advice,’ he said. ‘So, if you eat ambrosia, you will be immortal and normal. And if they had eaten ambrosia, you would have been a true immortal, but with who knows what deviations.’</p><p>	‘But we don’t catch the ambrosia in the sea. Zeus gives it to Poseidon who then gives some of it to Dad. If the ambrosia does not suffice, or if Poseidon or Zeus decides that I am disobedient, I’ll grow old and die.’</p><p>	‘Be obedient, then. But even if some disaster deprives you of ambrosia, you’ll have at least a hundred years of good life. Which is better than an eternity of misery. Some children conceived with use of ambrosia have deviations that are painful. They would envy you very much.’</p><p>	Leuce considered this.</p><p>	‘You have some right,’ she admitted. ‘But I fear nonetheless. Why is the world so cruel and unjust?’</p><p>	‘I do not know. It is just the way it is.’</p><p>	‘You can do anything you like, and Zeus cannot kill you. But he can kill me. I must be careful never to drop a word against him or Poseidon. Is it very bad that I want to appease them?’</p><p>	‘No, it is the sensible thing to do. Appease them, and they will not stop your ambrosia.’</p><p>	‘But if they want something bad from me?’</p><p>	‘It is unlikely that they will…’ Pronoia started, but was ashamed of her lie and added, ‘And even if they do, obey them. Leave to us and the others like us to deal with them.’</p><p>	Leuce seemed to calm down a bit. She lied for some time next to her big sister, then stood up, wished them good night and left.</p><p> </p><p>	When the lamp was carried away, ink-black darkness settled in the room. Prometheus couldn’t see anything, but sensed that Pronoia was not sleeping. Apparently something was not giving her rest. He waited, and after a little while she spilled it:</p><p>	‘Leuce is afraid that she will die. She suffers because she is not immortal.’</p><p>	Prometheus felt that she was talking about her little sister but thinking of someone else. Was she probing the thought about a child of their own?’</p><p>	‘Because nobody has prepared her to be mortal,’ he said. ‘I realize now that if you are not immortal, you just have to accept death. And it will be the best if you do not taste ambrosia. Otherwise, you’ll never be free.’</p><p>	‘Do you think that death can be accepted?’</p><p>	‘I suppose so. If everyone around is mortal, this would have been the norm. Maybe this is why Echo went to live with her people. We were against it, but she was wiser. A mortal cannot feel well living with immortals. If I had a child, I’d give him to mortal foster parents after the first few years. That’s why I liked Zeus’ idea about the humans.’</p><p>	‘But he was lying.’</p><p>	‘It doesn’t matter. Let his lies come true. The problem is that the humans seem to have no future. They looked very miserably in Mecone.’</p><p>	‘They have a future,’ said Pronoia confidently.</p><p>	‘How do you know?’</p><p>	‘Zeus is afraid of them. He wouldn’t be if they were about to become extinct. He knows something that you don’t.’</p><p>	‘I hope that you are right.’</p><p>	‘Do you still want a child? We’ll find a tribe for him, human or otherwise.’</p><p>	‘I do if you do.’</p><p>	‘Then we’ll have one, if only I can conceive and give birth.’</p><p>	‘Wonderful.’ Prometheus said this as lightly as he could. He knew that the brave ideas born by the night often evaporate at daylight. But at least Pronoia calmed down. She was soon breathing steadily as one in deep sleep.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This series requires a theogonic "Who's Who" section, so here it is. Of course, it is loosely based on Hesiod’s <i>Theogony</i>, with added science fiction and some true science. I am afraid that the original technical descriptions that I have added are boring. However, I feel them indispensable, because the fate of the descendants of Uranus and Gaea is an important plotline, and they are the in-work audience. For the character of Oceanus, I am indebted to Aeschylus' <i>Prometheus Bound</i>.</p><p>The thread of life, as mentioned before, is DNA. The female and male determinants are the X and Y chromosome, respectively. The spacers containing peculiar 12- or 23-nucleotide sequences are real features of DNA segments whose rearrangement produces antibody genes.</p><p>The false hellebore that contains the alkaloid cyclopamine causing cyclopia in developing fetuses is actually a New World species, <i>Veratrum californicum</i>. For plot purposes, I have postulated that some Old World false hellebore has the same effect.</p><p>My Hades has xeroderma pigmentosum, a genetic condition in which the DNA damage caused by UV light cannot be properly repaired. Like most genetic diseases, it is recessive, i.e. manifested when two mutant alleles are brought together in one individual.</p><p>My nectar is a sweetened solution of vitamin C (ascorbic acid). The details about ambrosia are inspired by some real-life recombinant DNA constructs using parts of genes for digesting lactose.</p><p>Ancient Greeks had no word for chemistry, so “studies on substances and their transformations” is the best I can invent.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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